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Archive for the ‘Problem Solving’ Category

One of the stupidest things I hear in business is “It’s not personal; it’s just business.” It’s often used to excuse an impolite remark or behaviour.

If it’s business, then it is personal. I’ve never had a business relationship with a non-person. Have you? Successful business is based on relationships between people so it’s important to make business personal and fun.

Far too many people spend 5 out the 7 days in a week being miserable, doing jobs that they don’t enjoy. That’s over 71% of a working life spent in misery. I think you’ll agree that this is a terrible return on investment. If anyone offered you those odds in a business transaction, you wouldn’t take it.

That’s why I’m never tired of repeating to my clients that they must enjoy what they do. If you don’t enjoy what you do – if your heart is not in it – then find something else you enjoy. Things you don’t enjoy are not worthy of your precious time. After all you only have one life.

“Yes Funsho, this is all very interesting but what has it got to do with silent marketing?” I hear you ask.

Well here is my point: if work isn’t fun for you, you won’t do your best. When you truly enjoy your work, you’re not only happier, but you’re also more enthusiastic and you perform much better.

What you do must be at the intersection of 4 critical factors: Does it fuel your passion? Does it tap into your talents? Is there a need for it? Do you feel ethically drawn to meet this need? This is your Personal Unique Magic Sweet Spot (PUMSS). I will write more about this in a future blog, but for now:

Your Personal Unique Magic Sweet Spot (PUMSS) is where your passion, your talents, a need, and your ethical desire to make a difference, are in harmony. (Click link below for Diagram.)

When you’re operating at this intersection, you’ll give your best performance. As my mother used to say; “A contented hen lays the best eggs.” Humans obey the same natural law.

Now how does this relate to silent marketing?
A contented person doing fun things at work with the goal of making a difference in their customers’ lives will do whatever it takes to give the customers what they need on their terms. That epitomizes effective marketing at its best – giving the best possible value. That is silent marketing.

So make business personal and fun for all your stakeholders and your success will be guaranteed.

Can you believe that we’re already in February? 12.33% of 2011 has already gone! So how have you spent the first 12% of 2011? Are you on target to achieve your marketing goals?

In fact today is February 14th – Valentine’s Day. It is the day for publicly celebrating romantic love. But that’s another story. I always take this opportunity to remind my clients to focus particularly on their marketing relationships. Accomplishing your sales and profit goals require good relationships with others – especially your prospects, customers and employees.

In February I urge my clients to re-establish their marketing relationships for another good reason; to regain momentum. As we all know, the New Year usually kicks off with new resolutions, high expectations and motivation but by early February, we tend to lose momentum.

Achieving goals is not always easy. How many times have you set a goal and not achieved it? Well, read on and hopefully this will help you hit the bullseye.

To achieve success with your sales and marketing goals, you need to answer the following critical questions:

Do you know what to do? – knowledge

Do you know how to do it ? – skill

Do you know why you want to do it? – motivation

The most important question, yet the least understood, is the last one. Why it is important for you personally to achieve that specific goal. Until you can answer this question, you will not be fully committed to your goal.

So, don’t forget…12.33% of the New Year has already been and gone. Isn’t it time to re-visit your marketing, sales and profit goals?

Great listening begets great service and great service begets great profits. Listening is also an act of love. I once heard someone define listening as “wanting to hear. You can’t deliver great service unless you really “want to hear.” And you can’t do this without caring. So you see, listening and great service go hand in hand.

It is impossible to offer the best value and deliver great service without listening very attentively, actively and with care. And guess what? You can’t be a great marketer without listening very attentively and actively. So when someone is speaking to you, are you always disciplined to want to hear? Are you in love with your customers? Well, you ought to be.

Silent marketing is about wanting to listen because you want to hear because you want to know because you want to help because you care because you love your customers.

The most difficult task in selling and the number one key to success is to get inside the head and heart of your customer. And you certainly don’t do that by talking. You can only understand your buyers’ situations, needs and wants by listening. Then you can address their concerns appropriately. What do they value most that only your company can give them?

Want to close more sales? Listen more closely. Listening is by far the most important aspect of marketing and the selling process. It is also, sadly, the weakest skill for many sales people. Want to learn to listen? Shut up. Start by asking important questions and just listening to your prospect’s answers. Develop an aversion for hearing your own voice. Start telling yourself, “Here I go again!” whenever you find yourself talking more than you listen.

The more you and your organization can understand and empathize with your customers’ key motivators, the more likely it is that you will have sustainable success. Do you know what motivates your customers to buy? What is the empathy level in your business? Do you and your organization really get your customers? If I ask the key players in your market today, would their answer be that you just don’t get them?

Empathy is the ability to step outside of yourself and see the world as other people do. It is one of the most under-appreciated abilities in business. Empathy helps to make good marketers into great silent marketers. Silent marketers see new opportunities faster than their competitors. You must put aside your own issues and put yourself in the other person’s shoes. This ability is a key ingredient to eventual market success because it allows you to develop products or services people really want.

When you use silent marketing to understand your customers’ needs as real human beings better, and create high-profit innovations in both current and new markets, the sky is the limit for you. When you learn to truly walk in your customers’ shoes and see the world with new eyes, you leverage empathy for growth in an unstoppable way. Ultimately it leads to better products, better profits, and happier customers, employees and owners.

So stop worrying about your own problems and start caring about the world around you – your customers’ world. In addition to its big economic benefits, silent marketing with its increased empathy for your customers can have a personal impact, as well. You have a better day at work. You and your employees will look forward to going into work every day. Has your organization got a strong sense of empathy? If so please let me know.

Silent Marketing: How to use empathy to become the darling of your market

You want to win your prospects’ trust and business? Show them that you empathize with their circumstance and understand their “pain” better than anyone else. Then let the quality and value of your product or service prove that you care deeply about your market’s frustrations.

Empathy is the cornerstone of any effective marketing or business strategy. It is about caring and turning your focus externally. With empathy, you see your company or business from the customers’ perspective. You think like your ideal customers and then do everything you can to become the supplier they would be thrilled to buy from. Put simply, you have to fall in love with your customer.

Are you in love? If not now, have you ever fallen in love? Think about what it is like when you’re in love. The object of your affection becomes the centre of your universe. Everything else fades into insignificance. You live, breathe, and dream for that one special someone.

Your relationship with your customer must be like that. Your job is to help them engineer a better outcome from each transaction with you. You must make a conscious decision to make their lives better off as a result of your relationship. You can do this by demonstrating how much more than anyone else you understand, respect, and empathize with their circumstance. Show that you feel what they feel. Then let them see that you’d do anything and go anywhere for them.

You have to care more about your customer than you do about your business. Crazy? I don’t think so. It’s common sense – think about it. I’ve noticed that most customers who come to me because of their mediocre sales and profit levels start to prosper the moment they turn their focus externally. Stop asking: “How can we cut costs? How can we survive? How can we do better? How can we sell more?” Start asking: “How can we add more value for our customers?”

To be empathetic:

1. You must love your customers.

2. You must care.

3. You must ask penetrating and insightful questions.

4. You must listen to their answers with your whole body – with care and attention.

5. You must have a desire to learn.

6. You must want to help and make your customers’ lives better.

So instead of focusing internally, focus externally. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. Let your product or service speak volumes of your empathy. That’s how you gain their trust and become the darling of your market. And that, my friend, is how you become their preferred supplier and the envy of your competitors. What do you think? Share your view and comments with the world.

Business success depends on your ability to discover “under-recognized” or changing needs and fulfilling them with creativity, wisdom, empathy, and understanding that no one else can demonstrate. You’ll occupy an enviable position in your market if you can discover and solve problems people (prospects, customers and competitors) may not even be able to articulate clearly.

Discover and solve the biggest, most important and impactful problems in your marketplace and your reward will be limitless. How do you do this? A good starting point to get clarity about what problems your marketplace is facing and trying to solve is with your prospects and customers. Ask them questions that will uncover the most important opportunities they need and want to exploit and problems they need and want to solve. Then listen to them attentively with your whole body, hanging on their every word.

To become a master at exploiting the opportunities and solving the problems, interpret and internalize the answers provided by your prospects and customers. Then use your organisation’s full arsenal of creativity, innovation and resources to deliver the best solutions. Do this and rich rewards await you.

Can you identify an overlooked sector of your market that you can serve profitably, better than anyone else? Can you identify an aspect of your marketplace offerings where customers are being forced to compromise, to which you can add unparalleled value? These are examples of rich reward and huge wealth creation areas.